In any computer communications network, one may find a large number of source nodes vying for a limited number of resources in order to transfer data to a number of destination nodes. Typically, messages are sent from a source node via a communications line to one or more switches in a network, and then forwarded to a destination node. In addition, destination nodes will respond to messages received from source nodes via a communication line, and this communication results in feedback from the destination node to the source node. As can be appreciated, when any number of source nodes begin transmitting data toward a network comprised of one or more network connections that may be described generally as network resources, each of these nodes would like to obtain a connection as soon as possible so as to begin the transmission of data from a source node through one or more switches and on to a destination node. With Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks, it is well known that the creation of connections, known as Switched Virtual Circuits (SVCs), is very slow, and that connections through an individual switch or link may only be created at a rate of ten to fifty per second. As a result, this slow rate is viewed as a limit on ATM's use in large backbone networks where service restoration to a group of end stations could result in the thousands or tens of thousands of connections being requested at the same time.
What is needed is a way to eliminate that slow speed of the creation of SVCs so as to increase the flow of data with an ATM network.